http://www.cpanel.net/index.html

Looking good :gthumb:

They've also got cpanel evolution demo (new cpanel them) up there, check it out, looks very nice. New file manager, new stuff, looks very promising :D

I don't like it too much. IMO, it looks like someone spent a day on it and uploaded it to their website.

Looking nice though manage2.cpanel is now looking out of sorts but its not a main site so I guess its ok. Though if cPanel Evolution is v12
where is v11?

*edit*. Just noticed the "upgrade your account" button. Is that meaning there is going to be inbuilt payment processing or similar I wonder?

Rus

If the admin had configured an action for this link you would see it now. :)

Hey a2b2 click the upgrade button. This shows up. I guess there could be a module that you can write yourself, or redirect the customer to a page or something similar.

In other news:

The new skin is definitely not production ready as it needs quite a lot of polish in browsers different than IE6.

Regards,

Bob

I don't like it too much. IMO, it looks like someone spent a day on it and uploaded it to their website.

I feel let down. :(

When I saw this thread I expected something a lot nicer looking, especially from a company like cPanel.

Looks like they spent 300$ hiring an offshore designer to slap some web2.0 half baked crap design.

I feel let down. :(

When I saw this thread I expected something a lot nicer looking, especially from a company like cPanel.

Are you mistaking cPanel for someone else? H-Sphere maybe? Although I like cPanel and use it on a daily basis, the looks of the panel need a refresh (a good one too).

Regards,

Bob

hmm, i am a designer , and frankly i like the new design. really , its not cluttered, easy to navigate , etc. but as always its only a matter of personal taste.

Are you mistaking cPanel for someone else? H-Sphere maybe? Although I like cPanel and use it on a daily basis, the looks of the panel need a refresh (a good one too).

Regards,

Bob

No, I'm pretty sure I clicked on the right link. :)

I personally don't like the layout. The old site was better. I'm not liking the orange logo.

The cpanel evolution needs work, and according to cpanel its not final yet so hopefully they will release a better looking version.

No idea when v12 will be available, we haven't even reached v11.

And the new look at demo seems not to be compatible with Firefox, its giving lot of errors.

And the new look at demo seems not to be compatible with Firefox, its giving lot of errors.

What errors are you getting exactly?

The demo(s) load fine and look for me under Firefox.

worked fine for me too (firefox)

excessive amounts of deadlinks could be fixed with a little effort. other than that, not bad...

I took some time to reply to see if it was a lone issue on but still many a times it would say "the script running on this page seems to be busy, do you want to stop the script or continue" and this error comes on "cPanel Evolution Demo".

May be its me only facing the issue.

looks too simple, don't like it. I prefer the old style. Seems like an amateur job at best.

An absolute disgrace. For a company the size of Cpanel to churn out a UI/design that looks like it was something done by an amateur frontpage user back in 1996 is really ridiculous.

You'd think they could spare a few grand and hire professionals and have a nice/usable skin for once after all these years. Guess not.

Well, I like the simplicity, but I have to agree with everyone else. It looks like an amateur job who followed a Photoshop Tutorial and changed the colours.

I do prefer it over the old one however, I just never liked that one.

That demo is horrible. I hope we can stick xskin. I hate it when coders try to design. Dangit, let the designers do that!

As for the website design, we were aiming at simple. I completed my audit of the site last night, and other than one or two deadlinks in the Sitemap, I don't believe I found any, if you've found any, please let me know.

As for the comments, site designs are always up to personal preference, we didn't expect everyone to like the new design. As for the ceonex comments, we'd prefer to spend the $50,000 on improving our customer's experience with cPanel, rather than improving the look of our website for marketing purposes. While personally being involved in two past Ceonex projects, I can say, they do an amazing job, however, a product such as cPanel does not require a Ceonex design, and such funds can definitely be better spent.

There's something to say about simplicity, afterall, cPanel's goal is to simplify the webhosts job.

With all that said, the site is still going under some changes, and we appreciate all the feedback (both in the site, and the Evolution theme)

Can't say I really like it either. The logo just doesn't stand out enough to be honest.

While cPanel might not need a ceonex design, it could do with a nice, fresh one... and comments thus far seem firmly in the "it's not as nice" category.

i think ill stick with the old cpanel
v12 GUI confuse me :S

Can't say I really like it either. The logo just doesn't stand out enough to be honest.

While cPanel might not need a ceonex design, it could do with a nice, fresh one... and comments thus far seem firmly in the "it's not as nice" category.

Agreed. I'm definitely listening to the feedback on this, and we will adjust as neccessary. cPanel is listening.

I don't mind the cpanel.net look at all - I think it's better than the old one. But in the end - who really cares? It doesn't affect us in any way.

What we care about is the new theme (Evolution) which will most likely become the official one.

And it is quite frankly ... disgusting. It's not clean at all - it has a look and feel to it of a really rushed design and as someone already said, it looks like something you'd expect to see from a programmer not a designer.

Honestly - I think you should scrap Evolution altogether and get someone to design a proper skin from the ground up. Something that will be more than just 'adequate' (ie. current X/X2 skins) or a half assed technology demo (Evolution) that looks like a horses ***.

cPanel could always buy out say rvskins and make those the default, then again thats not going to happen is it?

rvskins is in no way better - design/UI wise than anything cpanel currently offers. It just has more BLOAT.

imo rvskins is probably even worse than Evolution. I don't know maybe it's just me .. or maybe people are really blind and don't see how ugly these themes are.

But then considering the horrible web site designs by most of the web hosts I've seen here ... beauty must be in the eye of the beholder.

rvskins is in no way better - design/UI wise than anything cpanel currently offers. It just has more BLOAT.

imo rvskins is probably even worse than Evolution. I don't know maybe it's just me .. or maybe people are really blind and don't see how ugly these themes are.

But then considering the horrible web site designs by most of the web hosts I've seen here ... beauty must be in the eye of the beholder.

The problem that I have with RV Skin is that the icons remind me of the Windows 3.1 days. The rest of the software is fantastic, but those icons need a complete overhaul.

I don't mind the cpanel.net look at all - I think it's better than the old one. But in the end - who really cares? It doesn't affect us in any way.

What we care about is the new theme (Evolution) which will most likely become the official one.

And it is quite frankly ... disgusting. It's not clean at all - it has a look and feel to it of a really rushed design and as someone already said, it looks like something you'd expect to see from a programmer not a designer.

Honestly - I think you should scrap Evolution altogether and get someone to design a proper skin from the ground up. Something that will be more than just 'adequate' (ie. current X/X2 skins) or a half assed technology demo (Evolution) that looks like a horses ***.

Criticism is cool, but if you want to make a difference, try formatting it in a manner which helps us improve the comment. I can not even find one piece of constructive criticism in the above post.

What should cPanel do to make Evolution better?

What should cPanel do to make Evolution better?

Ability to use the old skin

Ability to use the old skin

Echoing this.

What should cPanel do to make Evolution better?

Take a look at Plesk.

I'd never run Plesk on my Linux servers, but for Windows server's its ideal. While the relationship between admins, resellers, customers, packages, domains and sites in Plesk is horrible (cPanel is far easier), the customer GUI is very nice.

Lots of icons, nothing squashed up. The screen isn’t cluttered, everything is done on a single page with a useful breadcrumb. It may require more clicks than necessary in some places, but generally, the design is ‘clean’, looks professional and doesn’t hurt the eyes. Plesk isn't ideal (many issues - e.g. the javascript 'loading' thing which annoys me to no end) but it's still better than any cPanel skin I've used.

For evolution, it isn't *that* bad. The main problems I have:
a) There are options in the header, in the left bar, in the main window, and then in the footer area. Try and keep things together in one place rather than scattered all over the screen. E.g. the 'manage another account' dropdown could be in the header or the left bar I'm sure.
b) The main section of the page seems ok, if a little too empty and white. I always find it easier to find an icon than a line of text, so bringing back icons like the old x would be good.
c) The bar on the left is far too crushed. Both in terms of width and everything being too close vertically. Try and space things out more.

If I think of anything else I'll let you know :)

I think their site is nice, but it still looks 2002 ish, not 2006ish

I think their site is nice, but it still looks 2002 ish, not 2006ish

What do you consider 2006'ish? This intrigues me because I'll get one group who says stuff like "all ceonex sites are good but 2002'ish...ours is just current" and others who say "your site looks 2002'ish, you should get a modern one.."

Mr. Nickn
Can you please answer my request?

Ability to use the old skin

The old skin will not be removed. However, new features will likely only make it to the new skin. (This is still under review)

I like the new design very much. I ilustrates what cPanel trys to market, simplicity to administer your servers. Thought it could be improved, I prefer it over the old one. Might be good to take a look at W3C validation (http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cpanel.net) too.

What should Cpanel do to make Evolution better?

For starters, scrap what you have currently because it is all wrong. Next, hire a REAL gfx and UI design company to PLAN, design and implement a usable and beautiful skin worthy of the great software it represents.

You might think I am being harsh just because I am an ******* (which I am..however not in regards to this matter..), but I'm not. This is honestly what I believe.

Evolution is in no way easier to use, better looking or more accessible than the X skin. I do realize that some significant changes have been made under the hood like the use of the updated API calls etc however I cannot comment on that. I can only comment on what I can see and use.

What I can see is a skin that is visually unappealing - starting with the choice of colours in both the header image and the menu on the left. The menu on the left especially has a very busy, rushed, old and unplanned feel to it. Yes it's informational but it is very 'plain' (that's putting it mildly), unoriginal and boring.

Text all over the skin is inconsistent, in some places there is no space between text and other elements eg. other text, or the menu on the left so it's squashed right against the wall so to speak..

The new File Manager is a total disaster quite frankly... it's Ajax and it's slow. My browser slows down / freezes on a regular basis when using it. It's not intuitive at all - if I can't work out how to use it in 5 mins, I give my customers no chance in hell ... it looks like someone just wanted to play with Ajax and show it off to the world - that and the fact that he or she likes Apple interfaces...

In short .. it's a dogs breakfast. Yes I can understand it's not the finished product. But please understand this - since there is really nothing positive that I can find about it that would make me want to look forward to future updates I can't really be any more constructive.

We've customized a commercial skin for our own servers and we're fairly happy with it. So all I can ask and hope for is that cpanel remains backward compatible at the very least so that we can continue using our skin - and good luck with Evolution.

Edit: Oh and I just wanted to comment on the fact that Evolution seems to like a cheap knock-off of a once great skin which I believe Cpanel bought out called Vertex (screen here: http://www.mewebhost.com/cpanel-hosting/cpanel_img/skin_vertex.gif) Vertex while not perfect, was at the very least designed by a good gfx artist - the icons alone are a million times better than the Evolution ones (speaking of which, why don't you use them since you guys own Vertex anyway??) and the colour scheme is a lot better - although not perfect.

.....What I can see is a skin that is visually unappealing - starting with the choice of colours in both the header image and the menu on the left. The menu on the left especially has a very busy, rushed, old and unplanned feel to it. Yes it's informational but it is very 'plain' (that's putting it mildly), unoriginal and boring.

Text all over the skin is inconsistent, in some places there is no space between text and other elements eg. other text, or the menu on the left so it's squashed right against the wall so to speak..

The new File Manager is a total disaster quite frankly... it's Ajax and it's slow. My browser slows down / freezes on a regular basis when using it. It's not intuitive at all - if I can't work out how to use it in 5 mins, I give my customers no chance in hell ... it looks like someone just wanted to play with Ajax and show it off to the world - that and the fact that he or she likes Apple interfaces....

I've taken note of the above. Thanks. :)

What should Cpanel do to make Evolution better?

For starters, scrap what you have currently because it is all wrong. Next, hire a REAL gfx and UI design company to PLAN, design and implement a usable and beautiful skin worthy of the great software it represents.

You might think I am being harsh just because I am an ******* (which I am..however not in regards to this matter..), but I'm not. This is honestly what I believe.

Evolution is in no way easier to use, better looking or more accessible than the X skin. I do realize that some significant changes have been made under the hood like the use of the updated API calls etc however I cannot comment on that. I can only comment on what I can see and use.

What I can see is a skin that is visually unappealing - starting with the choice of colours in both the header image and the menu on the left. The menu on the left especially has a very busy, rushed, old and unplanned feel to it. Yes it's informational but it is very 'plain' (that's putting it mildly), unoriginal and boring.

Text all over the skin is inconsistent, in some places there is no space between text and other elements eg. other text, or the menu on the left so it's squashed right against the wall so to speak..

The new File Manager is a total disaster quite frankly... it's Ajax and it's slow. My browser slows down / freezes on a regular basis when using it. It's not intuitive at all - if I can't work out how to use it in 5 mins, I give my customers no chance in hell ... it looks like someone just wanted to play with Ajax and show it off to the world - that and the fact that he or she likes Apple interfaces...

In short .. it's a dogs breakfast. Yes I can understand it's not the finished product. But please understand this - since there is really nothing positive that I can find about it that would make me want to look forward to future updates I can't really be any more constructive.

We've customized a commercial skin for our own servers and we're fairly happy with it. So all I can ask and hope for is that cpanel remains backward compatible at the very least so that we can continue using our skin - and good luck with Evolution.


Basicly, You don't like cpanel?

Improve CPanel - you can start by hiring these guys to design your next user interface. Awesome work!!

http://beta.stylesmooth.net

What do you consider 2006'ish? This intrigues me because I'll get one group who says stuff like "all ceonex sites are good but 2002'ish...ours is just current" and others who say "your site looks 2002'ish, you should get a modern one.."

Well basically your site looks like slashdot, just doesn’t look of time, slashdot looks very old and outdated, even though they have a new site, its just old looking and bland. Now on the other hand, digg.com has an of-time and modern site, web 2.0 used efficiently, etc. I think we know who the winner now is on the slashdot/digg war?

But in general with WHM, should probably start with organization of WHM. Its a 10 page mess. It works perfectly, but my VPS and Dedicated customers, who are generally designers and not sys admins freak, so we started giving them plesk, they don’t just freak with our a billion options.

404 here: http://www.cpanel.net/company/about/about.htm

Would be nice to have something like: http://www.digg.com/about

What do you consider 2006'ish? This intrigues me because I'll get one group who says stuff like "all ceonex sites are good but 2002'ish...ours is just current" and others who say "your site looks 2002'ish, you should get a modern one.."

I think this design is modern and well laid out. Your content is more in focus now because the design is clean and lightweight. The colors are bright and crisp. However, there are a few small / trivial alignment & spacing issues that can easily be fixed. For examples, check out the attachments to this reply.

I doubt most people would even notice the issues in the attachments or be able to put their finger on what's not right with the design unless it was pointed out, but the subconscious notices every time. Even before the meaning of the content has been interpreted. I think this is why you are getting some of the "built in one day" feedback. If you take measurements on your favorite designs you will most likely find that they come out to be very symmetrical.

The new design is nice, fix those small spacing & alignment issues and I think opinions will change. There are more throughout the rest of your site, but I have to get back to work now. Overall I think this is a big improvement, great job!

the new layout sucks

I think the most decent cpanel skin I ever saw was vertex

I think the most decent cpanel skin I ever saw was vertex

Is it for cpanel 12?

Vertex looks like it was made in 1997.

disagree. i love vertex.

Vertex looks like it was made in 1997.
It is a old skin that does not exist in cpanel anymore, but did a few years back.

I think the new cpanel theme looks awful. I didn't like the X skin either but even X skin is better than this. I don't think you have to spend 50.000$ to have a nice skin. I agree that new skin should be simple but at the same time, it should be clean and nice. Just take a look at direct admin or interworx, it is also simple, but at the same time very nice and looks clean.

Unfortunately I don't think that I have EVER seen an attractive theme for cPanel. Vertex, when available, was acceptable but cPanel should spend some money on a professional designer who can design a great GUI.

Unfortunately I don't think that I have EVER seen an attractive theme for cPanel. Vertex, when available, was acceptable but cPanel should spend some money on a professional designer who can design a great GUI.

I feel much the same way about cPanel's user interface(s). I don't care much about the website just the control panel. They should really put in the money to develop a better user interface - hire a real usability guru with a proven track record of developing great UI's. They will tear apart Evolution for you. There are inconsistencies regarding text layout and tasks. And get rid of the obsession with icons. If you see a link with an icon, think whether removing it will adversely affect a user's ability to figure out what the link does. Or at least center it vertically with the text or make a simple, nice looking button. Some of the links with icons look so amateurish. Sure, icons are nice, but don't overdo it.

And some areas with just icons, make sure people can tell what they mean instantly. If they can't or they need a legend, it's useless and chances are you can make it simpler. Like the FTP manager in Evolution with the "Type" column, why not just separate the different users into different tables. Why use some ambiguous icon and have people refer to a legend.

I'm really not impressed with Evolution, the only positive thing about it is the main page splits the tasks into various categories like Vertex instead of the giant icon blob in x2. Evolution just feels outdated in terms of design elements and colors used. Although none of the cpanel skins I've seen (including 3rd party skins and rvskin) are that great, in relative terms Evolution seems to be a step back. It feels very unrefined with a lot thing looking like it was just stuck in there without considerations for why it should be positioned like that, or why something was placed there. This is general but I'm trying to highlight the underlying problems, it's not my job to evaluate the usability of your control panel.

One thing is for sure, you'll never please everyone so please keep the templating system open to 3rd parties. I would ask that you not keep exclusive new features functional in only official cpanel skins like Evolution. This completely defeats the purpose of letting 3rd parties make skins. Either keep it open or closed, there's no middle ground - obviously most people prefer you to keep it open.

Besides a few months of Plesk a few years ago, Cpanel is the only control panel I've used on a regular basis. So I'm not saying all this just to bash Cpanel - honestly I've never thought very highly of the UI, which should be one of the top priorities. I'm sorry to say that even if you guys at cPanel think you've seriously considered UI issues, you really haven't, given the state of the UI right now and the new one being developed.

Look at the Wordpress UI, there are a good number of sections/tasks and subtasks, but it never feels like it's too many clicks away (I'm saying you don't have to lump every single task on the main page). Everything is organized logically and it's very intuitive and very consistent. I've had clients who were first time users and figured it out quite quickly. That's a great UI.

why not hold a small contest for someone to design a custom one of a kind skin for cpanel?

could make things interesting

why not hold a small contest for someone to design a custom one of a kind skin for cpanel?

could make things interesting

That's a great idea!

I'd like to see this happen, however I doubt cPanel will get their lawyers involved to draft up rules and who owns the work in the end... and what not. :)

Unfortunately I don't think that I have EVER seen an attractive theme for cPanel. Vertex, when available, was acceptable but cPanel should spend some money on a professional designer who can design a great GUI.

I agree, but the fact that they did anything new style wise is good news to me. But I would like to see a professionally designed skin, the plesk style theme's are always professional and appealing :)

What should cPanel do to make Evolution better?

How about we start by fixing some bugs in the current versions which have been open, confirmed but never addressed... such as:
http://bugzilla.cpanel.net/show_bug.cgi?id=3522

Improve CPanel - you can start by hiring these guys to design your next user interface. Awesome work!!

http://beta.stylesmooth.net

Now THAT is a great cpanel skin!!! Thanks for pointint it out - I'd never seen it before. We'll be buying this skin.

Now THAT is a great cpanel skin!!! Thanks for pointint it out - I'd never seen it before. We'll be buying this skin.

Yeah...it's a nice looking skin...too bad it's not for cPanel.

The new Cpanel site is not bad. It is clean and efficient. I think that it is not "slick", like some people expect. But otherwise, it is not bad.

Yeah...it's a nice looking skin...too bad it's not for cPanel.

Actually it is. The cpanel version is in beta right now. Supposedly its supposed to released this month.